Equal funding refers to the actual dollar amount of how much aid is given to the schools/districts.
Equal opportunity refers to the amount of funding needed to have an equal opportunity in every district. This means that a poorer district may get more funding than a richer one, for the fact that the richer district can afford to fund their schools more (the definition of richer and poorer would have to be established through accounting for a few different factors including average family income, and cost of living in that area).
The RI Strategic Plan addressed this by coming up with a funding formula that is said to balance both of these different issues. This is an important issue because it determines how much aid is put into the schools and therefore what programs can be created and implemented in the schools due to funding restrictions.
Consolidation/Centralization
Consolidation refers to the combination of schools or grades across districts, or even a singular large district consisting of many individual schools. This is an important issue because it creates a promise of funding increase by decreasing the expenditures, however it is also very controversial at this time and continues to be debated. The current trend in the schools is to become more and more consolidated.
Centralization is the bringing together of the power over such things as the curriculum and the standards that the students, teachers, and schools are held to. The RI Strategic Plan promises to create a unified curriculum and tests to make sure all of the students are on target. As well as promising to evaluate teachers based on performance and other such standards the Strategic Plan promises to implement a plan to help make sure that schools, if not meeting the standards, are at least making significant progress.
Alternative Schools
Alternative schools are programs that implement nontraditional methods catering to different groups of people. These programs can be for those who want to learn a trade, trade schools, or for those gifted in certain areas, aka magnet schools. Alternative programs are radically expanding to include therapeutic programs as well as disciplinary ones. The Rhode Island strategic plan has nothing in it about alternative schools, but it is something that should be considered for the future of state education.
Consolidation is a very controversial issue. The benefits sound great and sound, but so do the negatives. They sound horrid and like a great detriment to the community. There are two sides to this argument and that they both have legitimate claims. The claims that the schools/districts would be better off financially because they would have less administration to pay as well as the services people, all of this is in addition to the fact that they would only have to keep maintenance on the schools that were being used so they would also save more money there. The fewer changes is also a valid point however, because if they wanted to change a specific math course's text book they might have to change out 200 instead of a district's 100. The curriculum would widely benefit from consolidation however, as the curricula could be compared and combined with the best programs and features of each into one. The classes that were cut due to lack of enrollment could now be reopened because there is a whole new cash of students willing to take the different courses offered. The student/faculty ratios would rise however because while the amount of teachers in the one district would inevitably rise the entire population of teachers in another might be wiped out entirely creating a much higher student population in the schools and less of a chance for the students to individualize their educational experience. The funding issue is huge among districts as they would each want to spend the money on their own agendas, as well as the costs for lobbying for the consolidation. The use of funds for lobbying would only last until the program was put into place. The state legislatures' intervention, which would be necessary for the settlement of districts’ disputes and regulation, would most likely cause the need for more jobs in this department giving jobs to those would lose their executive jobs and the other jobs would not be immediately be cut giving the workers time to adjust and find other jobs. In addition the cost to the districts would provide far more benefits for the districts than the amount of jobs lost would. The consolidation of schools would open up more room for students in communities increasing the amount of citizens in the community. Educationally there is a benefit to consolidation as well. There is a benefit to grade-span consolidations as shown in the research, that the students perform at a better level when they are in a school with students who are older and younger than they are. Whether the benefit is from being a role model or having a role model or just the simple fact of not having to transfer schools and knowing all the teachers and your classmates or even being in the same environment year after year, there is a statistical difference between schools with a greater grade-span and those with a lesser, with the benefit going towards greater grade-span schools.
Kyle: Funding Formula
The funding formula is an equally controversial issue in Rhode Island. The fact that Rhode Island has not had an actual funding formula for the past 15 years has upset many school districts, especially those located in poor urban settings. Through its time lacking a funding formula, RI has based its funding of schools upon their performance the previous year. This is a huge problem for the poorer and more ethnically diverse schools due to the fact that they would need more funding in order to perform well but would not recieve more funding unless they were able to perform well without it first. The state aid was instead provided to the wealthier districts that produced higher performance ratings due to their ability to support themselves and their own communities without the state aid. The new financial plan which has been in the works for a year or two and finally was signed into state legislature this past summer (2010) is said to finally provide equity among school districts and bring justice to Rhode Island's funding formula. However, many flaws are visible in this plan such as its exclusion of state aid for things such as teacher pensions and transportation along with its per-pupil set standard which most school districts are already above. Furthermore, poorer districts such as Woonsocket and Pawtucket feel that the new plan will not bring enough equity in terms of funding and will only slightly increase the amount of state aid that the poorer school districts that are actually in need will recieve. Although there are many flaws in this funding formula, it is still comforting that Rhode Island finally has a formula of its own and hopefully the formula will continue to see reform in years to come.
Lauren: Alternative Schools
Alternative schools are different from what they used to be. There are now three distinct types: Type 1 schools offer fulltime, multiyear, flexible schedules for students to attend by choice. These include magnet schools, experiential schools, schools without walls, dropout recovery schools, after-hours schools, english language learners programs, and schools in atypical settings such as museums. Type 2 schools aim to reform disruptive students. These are the disciplinary schools that we are all used to hearing about. Students are not at these schools by choice, but rather are sent there for specific periods of time or until certain behavioral requirements are met. Type 3 schools are therapeutic to heal student with emotional or social problems that create academic and behavioral barrier. These programs typically offer counseling, remediation, and social services.
Alternate programs do generate costs just as any other school would in that they pay for staff, sometimes security and therapists or counselors and other resources. If the program is not successful then it should be terminated and the funds should go elsewhere. One concern for school officials and parents alike is that alternative schools will become "dumping grounds" for minorities and undesirable students, and that they will get all the bad, unqualified teachers. However, schools and programs have been successful with alternative methods in the past. School systems must carefully consider their need for alternative programs and pay close attention to the keys to success (controlling who attends, when, who teaches, having diversity in the student body, having a defined purpose, maintaining standards, sharing resources, and ensuring program integrity). Alternative schools are necessary for some districts depending on many factors such as dropout rates, crime, amount of students with special learning needs, but they are not right for every school system.
Engaging, informative, presentations by each group member beginning with a question.
Follow-up activity: "Fantasy District." Students will create their own ideal school district with options for funding and centralization. They may choose to include an alternative program in their school system as well.
We as a group believe that consolidation can be a positive and negative thing. Based on the situation and the cultural aspects of the area and the people that consolidation could go either way. First hand accounts have shown that although the statistical data showed that the school should have succeeded it failed miserably, because the two school districts it tried to combine were just too different in culture to be combined peacefully. This can happen anywhere, if the right steps are not taken to make sure that the student body will mesh well together. This is one of the key things for a school to succeed, a mutually tolerant student body. If the students will get along then we say look into how much it will cost/save to consolidate the schools, and since in most cases the answer would be it would save a lot of money, we would look into which kind of consolidation would be best for that area. Then we would look into how the behavior is at the upper grades and if the older children are good role models then we would suggest a grade-span consolidation if not we definitely would not suggest a grade-span consolidation because that would give the younger children the wrong thing to look up to and possibly give them the wrong ideas about what is right. When finished with determining if grade-span consolidation is a good idea we would then look into the funding situation and how that would workout, we would also start to create a business plan for the school basically just outlining what the objectives are and how it will achieve them, one could say that we would rewrite a mission statement. If all of the factors played out and that everything looked good to give the consolidation a try we see no reason why the consolidation would not work. Consolidation as a whole can be neither rejected nor implemented everywhere in any situation. It is our belief that if used in the right situation with the right guidelines that consolidation could be a very good, or bad, idea.
Majority Opinion on Equal Finance:
As a group we believe that the state's funding formula is definitely in need of reform and, although the reforms are not the greatness, they are still a good start to get school districts thinking about where the funds should be directed and what they should be used on. Rhode Island's previous "finance formula" of just providing state aid based upon the school's performance in the previous year ended up favoring the wealthier districts who could already provide for themselves. We believe that the new funding formula will help provide more well-deserved state aid to the poorer districts will removing excess funding from the wealthier districts that have no dire need for it. However, we feel the reforms being made should still be looked over and reformed continuously down the road as they will most likely lead to more problems among school districts in the future
Majority Opinion on Alternative Schools:
As a group we understand alternative schooling can be either helpful or hurtful as well. If the programs are not well thought out, then they are often not cost effective or remedial for student behavior or success. An alternative program must have an intended purpose, and stick to it, in order to become a solid educational facility. As Tom Gregory says in "Fear of Success? Ten Ways Alternative Schools Pull Their Punches," schools must be defined in order to attract anyone to it. Each program should have a target audience: teen parents, disruptive students, special needs, etc. While alternative school often expend a decent amount of resources, they may make up for that with their student success through different teaching methods. However, if school officials are not careful, they may simply be developing "dumping grounds" for the unwanted kids.
More on Consolidation:
Consolidation is a very controversial issue. There are two sides to this argument and that they both have legitimate claims. The claims that the schools/districts would be better off financially because they would have less administration to pay as well as the services people, all of this is in addition to the fact that they would only have to keep maintenance on the schools that were being used so they would also save more money there. The curriculum would widely benefit from consolidation however, as the curricula could be compared and combined with the best programs and features of each into one. The classes that were cut due to lack of enrollment could now be reopened because there is a whole new cash of students willing to take the different courses offered. The student/faculty ratios would rise creating less of a chance for the students to individualize their educational experience. The funding issue is huge among districts as they would each want to spend the money on their own agendas, as well as the costs for lobbying for the consolidation. The use of funds for lobbying would only last until the program was put into place however the state legislatures' intervention, which would be necessary for the settlement of districts’ disputes and regulation, would most likely cause the need for more jobs, giving jobs to those would lose their executive jobs and the other jobs would not be immediately be cut giving the workers time to adjust and find other jobs.Educationally there is a benefit to consolidation as well, shown through research.Students perform at a better level when they are in a school with students who are older and younger than they are. Whether the benefit is from being a role model or having a role model or just the simple fact of not having to transfer schools and knowing all the teachers and your classmates or even being in the same environment year after year, there is a statistical difference between schools with a greater grade-span and those with a lesser, with the benefit going towards greater grade-span schools. Regardless of research though the actual outcome of the consolidation depends on the social, academic, and financial situations of the districts, and even in examining these variables there is so much controversy over whether consolidation is a positive or negative thing, even though the entire country is trending towards it.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
I. Description of Problem or Issue
Equal Funding vs. Equal Opportunity
Equal funding refers to the actual dollar amount of how much aid is given to the schools/districts.Equal opportunity refers to the amount of funding needed to have an equal opportunity in every district. This means that a poorer district may get more funding than a richer one, for the fact that the richer district can afford to fund their schools more (the definition of richer and poorer would have to be established through accounting for a few different factors including average family income, and cost of living in that area).
The RI Strategic Plan addressed this by coming up with a funding formula that is said to balance both of these different issues. This is an important issue because it determines how much aid is put into the schools and therefore what programs can be created and implemented in the schools due to funding restrictions.
Consolidation/Centralization
Consolidation refers to the combination of schools or grades across districts, or even a singular large district consisting of many individual schools. This is an important issue because it creates a promise of funding increase by decreasing the expenditures, however it is also very controversial at this time and continues to be debated. The current trend in the schools is to become more and more consolidated.
Centralization is the bringing together of the power over such things as the curriculum and the standards that the students, teachers, and schools are held to. The RI Strategic Plan promises to create a unified curriculum and tests to make sure all of the students are on target. As well as promising to evaluate teachers based on performance and other such standards the Strategic Plan promises to implement a plan to help make sure that schools, if not meeting the standards, are at least making significant progress.Alternative Schools
Alternative schools are programs that implement nontraditional methods catering to different groups of people. These programs can be for those who want to learn a trade, trade schools, or for those gifted in certain areas, aka magnet schools. Alternative programs are radically expanding to include therapeutic programs as well as disciplinary ones. The Rhode Island strategic plan has nothing in it about alternative schools, but it is something that should be considered for the future of state education...............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
II. Research Summary
Cynthia: Consolidation
Consolidation is a very controversial issue. The benefits sound great and sound, but so do the negatives. They sound horrid and like a great detriment to the community. There are two sides to this argument and that they both have legitimate claims. The claims that the schools/districts would be better off financially because they would have less administration to pay as well as the services people, all of this is in addition to the fact that they would only have to keep maintenance on the schools that were being used so they would also save more money there. The fewer changes is also a valid point however, because if they wanted to change a specific math course's text book they might have to change out 200 instead of a district's 100. The curriculum would widely benefit from consolidation however, as the curricula could be compared and combined with the best programs and features of each into one. The classes that were cut due to lack of enrollment could now be reopened because there is a whole new cash of students willing to take the different courses offered. The student/faculty ratios would rise however because while the amount of teachers in the one district would inevitably rise the entire population of teachers in another might be wiped out entirely creating a much higher student population in the schools and less of a chance for the students to individualize their educational experience. The funding issue is huge among districts as they would each want to spend the money on their own agendas, as well as the costs for lobbying for the consolidation. The use of funds for lobbying would only last until the program was put into place. The state legislatures' intervention, which would be necessary for the settlement of districts’ disputes and regulation, would most likely cause the need for more jobs in this department giving jobs to those would lose their executive jobs and the other jobs would not be immediately be cut giving the workers time to adjust and find other jobs. In addition the cost to the districts would provide far more benefits for the districts than the amount of jobs lost would. The consolidation of schools would open up more room for students in communities increasing the amount of citizens in the community. Educationally there is a benefit to consolidation as well. There is a benefit to grade-span consolidations as shown in the research, that the students perform at a better level when they are in a school with students who are older and younger than they are. Whether the benefit is from being a role model or having a role model or just the simple fact of not having to transfer schools and knowing all the teachers and your classmates or even being in the same environment year after year, there is a statistical difference between schools with a greater grade-span and those with a lesser, with the benefit going towards greater grade-span schools.Kyle: Funding Formula
The funding formula is an equally controversial issue in Rhode Island. The fact that Rhode Island has not had an actual funding formula for the past 15 years has upset many school districts, especially those located in poor urban settings. Through its time lacking a funding formula, RI has based its funding of schools upon their performance the previous year. This is a huge problem for the poorer and more ethnically diverse schools due to the fact that they would need more funding in order to perform well but would not recieve more funding unless they were able to perform well without it first. The state aid was instead provided to the wealthier districts that produced higher performance ratings due to their ability to support themselves and their own communities without the state aid. The new financial plan which has been in the works for a year or two and finally was signed into state legislature this past summer (2010) is said to finally provide equity among school districts and bring justice to Rhode Island's funding formula. However, many flaws are visible in this plan such as its exclusion of state aid for things such as teacher pensions and transportation along with its per-pupil set standard which most school districts are already above. Furthermore, poorer districts such as Woonsocket and Pawtucket feel that the new plan will not bring enough equity in terms of funding and will only slightly increase the amount of state aid that the poorer school districts that are actually in need will recieve. Although there are many flaws in this funding formula, it is still comforting that Rhode Island finally has a formula of its own and hopefully the formula will continue to see reform in years to come.Lauren: Alternative Schools
Alternative schools are different from what they used to be. There are now three distinct types: Type 1 schools offer fulltime, multiyear, flexible schedules for students to attend by choice. These include magnet schools, experiential schools, schools without walls, dropout recovery schools, after-hours schools, english language learners programs, and schools in atypical settings such as museums. Type 2 schools aim to reform disruptive students. These are the disciplinary schools that we are all used to hearing about. Students are not at these schools by choice, but rather are sent there for specific periods of time or until certain behavioral requirements are met. Type 3 schools are therapeutic to heal student with emotional or social problems that create academic and behavioral barrier. These programs typically offer counseling, remediation, and social services.Alternate programs do generate costs just as any other school would in that they pay for staff, sometimes security and therapists or counselors and other resources. If the program is not successful then it should be terminated and the funds should go elsewhere. One concern for school officials and parents alike is that alternative schools will become "dumping grounds" for minorities and undesirable students, and that they will get all the bad, unqualified teachers. However, schools and programs have been successful with alternative methods in the past. School systems must carefully consider their need for alternative programs and pay close attention to the keys to success (controlling who attends, when, who teaches, having diversity in the student body, having a defined purpose, maintaining standards, sharing resources, and ensuring program integrity). Alternative schools are necessary for some districts depending on many factors such as dropout rates, crime, amount of students with special learning needs, but they are not right for every school system.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
II. Group Product Overview
Engaging, informative, presentations by each group member beginning with a question.
Follow-up activity: "Fantasy District." Students will create their own ideal school district with options for funding and centralization. They may choose to include an alternative program in their school system as well.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
III. Visual Representation
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
IV. Research Questions and Reference Summaries
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................
V. Group Reaction/Opinion(s) about Issue
Majority Opinion on Consolidation:
We as a group believe that consolidation can be a positive and negative thing. Based on the situation and the cultural aspects of the area and the people that consolidation could go either way. First hand accounts have shown that although the statistical data showed that the school should have succeeded it failed miserably, because the two school districts it tried to combine were just too different in culture to be combined peacefully. This can happen anywhere, if the right steps are not taken to make sure that the student body will mesh well together. This is one of the key things for a school to succeed, a mutually tolerant student body. If the students will get along then we say look into how much it will cost/save to consolidate the schools, and since in most cases the answer would be it would save a lot of money, we would look into which kind of consolidation would be best for that area. Then we would look into how the behavior is at the upper grades and if the older children are good role models then we would suggest a grade-span consolidation if not we definitely would not suggest a grade-span consolidation because that would give the younger children the wrong thing to look up to and possibly give them the wrong ideas about what is right. When finished with determining if grade-span consolidation is a good idea we would then look into the funding situation and how that would workout, we would also start to create a business plan for the school basically just outlining what the objectives are and how it will achieve them, one could say that we would rewrite a mission statement. If all of the factors played out and that everything looked good to give the consolidation a try we see no reason why the consolidation would not work. Consolidation as a whole can be neither rejected nor implemented everywhere in any situation. It is our belief that if used in the right situation with the right guidelines that consolidation could be a very good, or bad, idea.Majority Opinion on Equal Finance:
As a group we believe that the state's funding formula is definitely in need of reform and, although the reforms are not the greatness, they are still a good start to get school districts thinking about where the funds should be directed and what they should be used on. Rhode Island's previous "finance formula" of just providing state aid based upon the school's performance in the previous year ended up favoring the wealthier districts who could already provide for themselves. We believe that the new funding formula will help provide more well-deserved state aid to the poorer districts will removing excess funding from the wealthier districts that have no dire need for it. However, we feel the reforms being made should still be looked over and reformed continuously down the road as they will most likely lead to more problems among school districts in the futureMajority Opinion on Alternative Schools:
As a group we understand alternative schooling can be either helpful or hurtful as well. If the programs are not well thought out, then they are often not cost effective or remedial for student behavior or success. An alternative program must have an intended purpose, and stick to it, in order to become a solid educational facility. As Tom Gregory says in "Fear of Success? Ten Ways Alternative Schools Pull Their Punches," schools must be defined in order to attract anyone to it. Each program should have a target audience: teen parents, disruptive students, special needs, etc. While alternative school often expend a decent amount of resources, they may make up for that with their student success through different teaching methods. However, if school officials are not careful, they may simply be developing "dumping grounds" for the unwanted kids.More on Consolidation:
Consolidation is a very controversial issue. There are two sides to this argument and that they both have legitimate claims. The claims that the schools/districts would be better off financially because they would have less administration to pay as well as the services people, all of this is in addition to the fact that they would only have to keep maintenance on the schools that were being used so they would also save more money there. The curriculum would widely benefit from consolidation however, as the curricula could be compared and combined with the best programs and features of each into one. The classes that were cut due to lack of enrollment could now be reopened because there is a whole new cash of students willing to take the different courses offered. The student/faculty ratios would rise creating less of a chance for the students to individualize their educational experience. The funding issue is huge among districts as they would each want to spend the money on their own agendas, as well as the costs for lobbying for the consolidation. The use of funds for lobbying would only last until the program was put into place however the state legislatures' intervention, which would be necessary for the settlement of districts’ disputes and regulation, would most likely cause the need for more jobs, giving jobs to those would lose their executive jobs and the other jobs would not be immediately be cut giving the workers time to adjust and find other jobs.Educationally there is a benefit to consolidation as well, shown through research.Students perform at a better level when they are in a school with students who are older and younger than they are. Whether the benefit is from being a role model or having a role model or just the simple fact of not having to transfer schools and knowing all the teachers and your classmates or even being in the same environment year after year, there is a statistical difference between schools with a greater grade-span and those with a lesser, with the benefit going towards greater grade-span schools. Regardless of research though the actual outcome of the consolidation depends on the social, academic, and financial situations of the districts, and even in examining these variables there is so much controversy over whether consolidation is a positive or negative thing, even though the entire country is trending towards it.